LONDON: A family of British immigrants of Indian origin, settled in East London, was under scrutiny on Sunday after it emerged that their teenaged son was among the 24 people arrested in connection with the plot to blow up U.S. planes over the Atlantic using liquid explosives.

Abdul Muneem Patel (17), who was arrested in a countrywide swoop on Thursday, is the youngest of the alleged suspects.

His name also figures in the list of the 19 men whose assets have been frozen by the British Government under anti-terror laws.

On Saturday, the son-in-law of an Imam of Indian origin, also from East London, was identified as an alleged suspect. Brian Young (28), originally a Christian of Caribbean origin, converted to Islam and became Umar Islam. He married the Imam's daughter.

Most of the 24 people in custody, however, are British nationals of Pakistani origin.

Other likely targets

As investigations continued, police were reported as saying that the plot to destroy up to 10 American planes in mid-air was part of a wider conspiracy to unleash a "wave" of deadly attacks on targets inside Britain.

These could have included ferry ports and the train network, including the London Underground which has already been attacked once.

Police warned that with some of the alleged plotters still believed to be on the run the threat remained though there was no specific intelligence about an imminent attack.

"Senior security officials have briefed ministers that a `second phase' of attacks may be about to be launched,'' The Sunday Times reported, quoting security sources as saying that a man arrested in connection with the plot was believed to be Al-Qaeda's leader in Britain.

It said he was suspected to be behind two "pipelines" — one involved sending potential terror recruits for training in Pakistan, and the other to join the militancy in Iraq.

Home Secretary John Reid said that while the "main suspects" were in custody the threat was still very real.

"We think we have the main suspects in this particular plot. I have to be honest and say on the basis of what we know, there could be others out there ... so the threat of a terrorist attack in the U.K. is still very substantial," he told the BBC.

Asked about a report in the Observer newspaper that "up to two dozen'' terror cells were operating in Britain, Mr. Reid said: "I am not going to confirm an exact number but I wouldn't deny that that would indicate the number of major conspiracies that we are trying to look at. There would be more which are not at the centre of our considerations and there may be more that we don't know about at all."

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